Red tape continues to snarl Kearny waterfront walkway

View full sizeKearny hopes to build a walkway along its portion of the Passaic River waterfront.File photo

It should be an easy project: build a walkway along the Passaic River through an existing park in Kearny.

But the town's plan to construct a walkway through Riverbank Park has been mired for years in state-generated red tape, leaving officials frustrated at the project's plodding pace.

Five years ago, the state Department of Transportation awarded the town $2 million to design and construct the walkway.

In 2011, the town advertised for proposals from engineering firms to design the first phase of the pathway from the Belleville Turnpike south to Linden Avenue, a distance that equals approximately 20 percent of the length of Riverbank Park. At the time, officials said they hoped to begin construction six months later.

Since then, Kearny officials say they've faced myriad state regulations that have prevented the project from moving out of the initial design phase and into a public comment period giving residents the chance to weigh in on the design.

The latest snafu: a lengthy form the town recently received from the DOT requesting details on what Town Administrator Michael Martello called the "financial practices of the town." Martello said the form will delay the project for at least another month.

"The DOT has already approved the funding for this," Fourth Ward Councilwoman Susan McCurrie said. "Sorry, but I'm just stating my frustration at the new bureaucratic level that's been put before us."

Despite the project's latest hurdle, Mayor Al Santos said the town is still hoping to move forward on the project's public comment period soon.

"This has been one set of changed regulatory requirements after another," Santos said. "We're stuck in this regulatory inertia that is getting in the way of a good project."